Kirjahaku

The signs of decline are everywhere in the American church. Instead of finding blame in other places, the author asks "What if God is dismantling the church?" For Kanagy, the decline of the church is ironically the work of God, taking apart the institutionalized church as we know it. Why so? In order to once again reveal the core of Christian faith: Jesus.About four years ago Kanagy learned that he had Parkinson's disease. This difficult but liberating experience brought a personal dismantling that transformed his life. The Parkinson's dismantling gave Kanagy the courage, the guts, and the grit to strip off his masks and speak the truth. It empowered him to say and write things that most of us might think but would never say. Setting aside his inhibitions, freed him to reveal his innermost thoughts and struggles.These essays mingle the voice of a prophet, the eye of a sociologist, the heart of a pastor, the wisdom of an educator, and above all the candid confessions of a child of God. Whatever your identities-religious, skeptic, political, racial, gender, class-you will find his essays provocative. His unvarnished honesty and his picturesque language are refreshing. Kanagy invites us to see things in new ways that jolt our spiritual complacency.You may not agree with him on every point, but you will admire his courage to say it as he sees it. He may stir your ire or light your fire, annoy you or compel you to compassion. Prophetic voices do that. But you will keep on reading. His poignant stories, evocative phrases, and frank confessions will entice you to read on and on to the very last line. This is the first in a series of four books to be released this Fall that emerged from a podcast that the author developed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In this second book in the series-"A Church Dismantled"-the author looks objectively at our society and church communities, both as a sociologist of religion as well as a Mennonite pastor. The book is organized according to various ministry related themes. The subtitle of the book-"To Tear Down or Build Up?"-reflects the dilemma that pastors find themselves in during the current context of the American church. Unsettling at times, this book is filled with hope as we face these new church realities together.

This book is of a different tone and nature than the first two, as we experience the author leaning more toward his pastoral voice than the prophetic-though both remain in the mix. While these are not typical "devotional essays" written for each day of Advent or Lent, many of these essays were written during Kanagy's morning times with God in these two sacred seasons. In this book, we sense the author's passion for a deep life with God, and the recognition that it is only such a life-nurtured so often in the dark-that will finally see us Home.

This fourth book is the most autobiographical and "memoir-like" of the series, pulling together in one volume the author's experience of life-long inner religious and emotional turmoil, growing up in an Amish/Mennonite community, memories of formative childhood experiences that shaped his spiritual life, stories of ancestors who he describes as prophets and priests and dividers and dismantlers and with whom he identifies, experiences of illness and the grace to go on, and reflections on the eternal Home that has come more clearly into view for him. Kanagy reminds us that acknowledging our pain and brokenness is the only pathway to healing.

Walter Brueggemann is a very successful person who wrote more than 100 books, but still sometimes wonders if he has done anything of value. This biography written for children shows how even though Walter has had failures and shortcomings, he is deeply loved by God and held in God's arms. Beautifully and colorfully illustrated by Audrey Kanagy, children and adults alike will enjoy reading this story.